Brothers Of Charity..........

Like all the developing countries,Sri Lanka has a range of needs in areas
such as housing,unemployment,traumatized victims of violence and a lack of appropriate services
for people with special needs,drug and other related substance abuse.

The Brothers of Charity in both Britain and Ireland are,with the assistance of University College Galway
and others agencies seeking to address areas where we can be of assistance,both professionally
and financially. We are seeking support and funding from the European Community as well as other
Organizations and individuals.
Detailed research of local need was undertaken by the late Broter Peter Sheehy, the first Director of
Nisansala, Brother Michael O'Malley and Martin O'Neil.Following their research findings and subsequent
recommendations, we built a residential and day centre at Nisansala - (The Sinhala word for tranquility)
in Ja-Ela.

At that time we considered the centre appropriate to meet the needs of our service users,
but it is now clear that we would have had greater impact through more sustained involvement with
families,friends and the wider community.

initiatives have included ;

The continued expansion of a volunteer service.

At the end of 1994 we
responded to the reguests of
local parents by developing
a children's service,which
now provides social and
educational training for
twenty children under 12
years old.

A number of services users
of Nisansala day center
have attended for
over three years and
throught support and
training are ready to
move onto more
challenging environments.

To date well over 100 persons
with learning disability (mentalh
andicap) have passed through
our Training and development
programes since the service
commenced in 1991.
In the last 12 months 29 persons
have left our service for further
vocational training -employment
or more appropriate training
opportunities etc.